I'm thinking of living and teaching in Mexico. However, I would much prefer to be in western Europe where I have lived (without working). It always been my understanding that Americans can't work legally in France or Italy or Spain. It would be a dream if I could find a way to do it. I heard that department of defense jobs can land you just about anywhere on earth so I havent put in for that.
Being in france or italy has always been like heaven for me. Not so crazy about Mexico but I'll do it if there's no other place.
Thanks

Have you read anything on here? France, Spain, Italy, Western Europe in general is out for Americans unless you have specialist qualifications, work for the military, are sent there by an international company that you work for in America or obtain a student visa by being a full time student at a university. There may be a few other very limited options but the four that I've listed are difficult enough to maneuver as is. In Germany, apparently, you can call yourself a freelancer and work if you have contracts with two or more schools--supposedly this is doable.

Legal options:
get into one of a (very) few ministry of ed programmes
become a full-time student and work part time
get VERY lucky and get one of the VERY rare openings on a US military base (these are normally grabbed up by spouses of military staff)
be sent to the country by a US-based company to work in their branch there
have high-level specialist qualifications and find someone who wants them badly enough to jump through the significant legal hoops to get you.
marry a local

Work freelance in Germany (not applicable in France, Spain, Italy, etc) - see the Germany board for more info

Well, I started to look for work in western Europe in 1972! I worked there illegally for a time. I pretty much knew the score. I was just looking for a possible miracle before going to llama land or Mexico

Things got radically more difficult in January 2009 when the new Schengen zone laws went into effect. Basically, the olde border-crossing-to-restart-tourist-visa option has been closed. Now, you have to stay out of the entire zone for 90 days to re-start your new 90 days legally inside (google the Schengen zone if you're not familiar and are interested).

The fall-out is that working illegally, which used to be relatively safe, no longer is...the risks of being caught overstaying and deported plus banned from the EU for some period of time have increased quite a lot.

Tight economies further mean that language teaching is more and more limited to EU member citizens only (UK).

It might be better off seceding from the Union. Doubt it would trigger an American style civil war.

By the way, its denizens prefer the name Republic of Ireland. Or even just Ireland. 'Irish Republic', which seems to be used only by British media, sounds as strange and awkward to locals as, say, the French Republic, or the English Kingdom.